Because the MSU men's basketball team finished the Big Ten season with a 12-4 record and was the third of three conference teams selected to represent the Big Ten in the NCAA Tournament, Tom Izzo will have to switch to Kroger-brand canned peaches.

In certain respects, collegiate basketball is more of a business than a sport. It's a bottom line-driven, money-making machine, sometimes embodying all the compassion of "Martha Stewart Living." Hoop dreams and Cinderella slippers are just the captivating storefront to a well-oiled corporation.

And like any other business, Division I basketball teams are rewarded for performance. Major universities - such as MSU - receive money for appearing on television, then more money for each game they advance into the March tournament. In the case of the Big Ten, the money schools receive for winning is lumped together in a conference account and redistributed to all 11 schools. It's a fatter conference bank book when more teams make the Big Dance.

This cash, coming from CBS' extraordinarily lucrative contract to air the NCAA Tournament, hopefully finds its way back into basketball programs - or at least football, the only other major revenue sport - and the Big Ten continues to hang its hat on the tradition of being an athletic powerhouse. It relatively works the same way for football - the Big Ten, and the other 10 schools aside from MSU actually liked it when Michigan played in the Rose Bowl and Ohio State played in the Fiesta Bowl. The only difference was, it earned more money per capita team, and the money was coming from ABC, which aired the games.

This March, though, is different from years past. Last year and in 2002, the Big Ten sent five teams to the NCAA Tournament, two more than this dance. In 2001, seven (gasp!) conference teams were tapped. The argument can be made - and certainly is viable - that the Big Ten conference fell off a bit this season.

But will a Big Ten team be strapped for cash in the coming seasons? Not really. "Not really" because it's a fairly qualitative assessment of what "strapped for cash" really means. To the fan, as long as college basketball still is being played, the program is doing fine. To the program, the ledgers can tell a different story altogether. When fans see the Big Ten won't be receiving the roughly $250,000 it would have for two conference teams to lose in the opening round, it really doesn't register. Coaches still will make millions of dollars and facilities will still be top notch. Below the hoop dream storefront, though, some schools are actually hurting.

But to combat the one-season drop off, money is distributed based on performance over six years. In this instance, the Big Ten is not going to take a crippling financial blow for only sending three teams to this year's dance. Conversely, much, much smaller schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East Conference and Conference USA are standing to improve their programs beyond their wildest dreams. The mid-major love affair continues.

Is it a down year for Big Ten basketball performance-wise? Maybe. Anyone is capable of a nice run deep into the field of 65. But is MSU going to be pinching pennies and going generic as a result? Probably not.